Felzkowski stays focused on healthcare costs

Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said she voted against the state’s new budget because it didn’t do enough to rein in healthcare costs. She’s planning to push a slew of bills this fall aimed at doing just that.

“It’s unsustainable,” Felzkowski said about healthcare spending during a Wisconsin Health News virtual event on Wednesday. “We have to deal with this.”

Felzkowski wants mandatory participation in the state’s all-payer claims database, state regulations for price transparency and more reform of pharmacy benefit managers.

She’s also interested in looking at prior authorization and cracking down on unnecessary tests and treatments that don’t increase healthcare quality.

“There’s a lot of things the state can do, and we’re just going to keep working toward that,” Felzkowski said.

Jeremy Levin, director of advocacy for the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, hopes lawmakers revisit prior authorization proposals stripped from Gov. Tony Evers’ initial state spending plan. Evers wanted to exempt care that is frequently approved and mandate that insurers disclose what services require prior authorization.

Levin said he’s also focused on working with the Trump administration to determine how Medicaid changes in the Republican tax and spending bill could impact rural hospitals.

Lisa Hassenstab, public policy manager for Disability Rights Wisconsin, said it will be important to educate legislators on the scope of the state’s Medicaid program as they will play a big role in shaping the federal bill’s changes.

“Medicaid is an incredibly complex program, and we have a lot of new legislators that are still getting to really know what the program looks like,” she said.

Wisconsin Assisted Living Association CEO Michael Pochowski said their legislative priority for the session is a bill increasing the transparency of senior living referral agencies. The measure would require referral agencies to disclose their financial relationships with assisted living providers.

“We’re making sure that we know, for our elderly population, that they are fully aware of what the fees are for contracting or working with those organizations,” Pochowski said. “Where those fees are going, who’s paying those fees? And one of the biggest things is just how long are these agencies maintaining the information of these frail, elderly individuals and their families?”

Watch the event on WisconsinEye, YouTube and Facebook.

This article first appeared in the Wisconsin Health News daily email newsletter. Sign up for your free trial here.